Slow to rise in the literary world, Octavia Estelle Butler cultivated musings on earth’s future, reaching massive critical acclaim in the process. This companion will complement book club discussions and classroom lessons for the closest possible readings of Butler’s science fiction and her texts on racism and pollution. A maven of speculative fiction so prescient that it hovers between tocsin and prophecy, Butler survives through her print stories, essays, novels and musings on individualism and compromise. This book guides the reader on a variety of Butler pieces, from her most obscure titles to her historical entries and pieces that speculate upon science, metaphysics, linguistics, psychology, writing and religion. The text serves as a guide through the depths of Octavia Butler’s works and reinforces the reasons for which her name so often appears on reading lists for higher learning.

Mary Ellen Snodgrass is an award-winning author of English and Latin textbooks and reference works for 35 years. She taught at Hickory High School and Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina for 23 years. Her writing focuses on women’s and world literature and history and general research topics, including epidemics, the history of money, clothing, food, and dance. She lives in Hickory, North Carolina.

Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 295
Bibliographic Info: 18 photos, glossary, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2022
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8875-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4746-3
Imprint: McFarland
Series: McFarland Literary Companions

Acknowledgments  viii
Preface  1
Introduction  3
Butler Biography  5
Butler Genealogy  59
The Companion  61
Aphorisms by Octavia Butler  245
Glossary  248
A Guide to Writing, Art, and Research Topics  258
Bibliography  271
Index  283

• “Octavia Butler’s profound influence as a sf writer, a woman writer, and a Black writer is growing. This reference work guides readers through Butler’s work. The introduction provides background influences and shows overwhelming evidence of Butler’s importance. The fifty-page biography marks her life and writings in terms of significant dates in her life. Most of the book describes and analyzes each work of Butler’s, with entries arranged in alphabetical order. Themes, literary devices, major characters and titles are each given individual attention…. Snodgrass’s writing is clear and research-based…the layout is very readable. This volume is worthy of Butler, and should interest the eager reader and scholar.”—Booklist